If you are on the fence about sorority life, I definitely recommend at least going through rush and seeing what it is like for yourself! I hope you find your forever home and sisters like I did!
I wish you the best of luck with your recruitment experience — if you decide to go through formal, keep these 10 things in mind:
1. Find out when your registration opens for formal recruitment at your school.
Some schools offer a lower price if you register before a certain date and I mean who doesn't want to save a couple dollars if they can am I right?! But you also want to make sure you don't put off registering until it is too late!
2. Know when the dates are for formal recruitment and DON'T plan anything during that time frame.
Depending on when your school has your recruitment, this will be the only thing you will want to have scheduled to do that week. When people say that sorority recruitment is exhausting, they are not being overdramatic. I PROMISE YOU. If you formal recruitment is during the fall semester, it will probably still be summer weather outside. You will get hot, you will be tired from all the walking and talking, and the decision process can be very taxing on your brain. It's so worth it in the end when you are surrounded by all your new sisters so don't let that scare you at all. You just want to make sure you have time to relax and get a full night of sleep.
3. Make a resume and perfect it.
Don't. Be. Afraid. To. Brag. Sororities want to hear about all the awesome awards you received or clubs you were a part of during high school. This is the time to strut your stuff and show off what sets you apart from everyone else. This also will help provide useful information to the alumni writing your recommendation letter so they can talk about how you would be a wonderful addition to their organization.
My resume included the following sections:
- Name and contact information such as email, phone number, and your home address.
- Education: Include your high school's information, your GPA (weighted & unweighted), class standing, AP/Honor classes, and your ACT/SAT score.
- Awards & Honors: Include both academic and non-academic awards here!
- Work Experience: Write about your jobs here such as where you worked and your responsibilities.
- Leadership Experience: Were you president of your class? Captain of the soccer team? Write about that stuff here!
- Community Service: Write about how you were involved in XYZ community service activities here and what they consisted of!
- Activities/Sports/Clubs: Any other things you were involved in should be written under this category!
- Greek Affiliations: If any of your family was in Greek life put their info in this section here!
4. See what chapters are at your school and if they have any requirements for recruitment.
Some chapters have certain requirements for PNMs (Potential New Member) such as certain GPA requirements, whether or not they require recommendation letters from alumni, etc. Some sororities also have a different due date for their recommendation letters than the normal due date that is set for recommendation letters. Knowing this kind of information ahead of time gives you the opportunity to get those things in order if you need to!
5. Start the search for recommendation letters EARLY.
Speaking of recommendation letters, you will want to start getting these early on during the summer to allow the alumni who are writing these for you a decent amount of time to be able to fill them out for you! One of the best ways to get these is by posting on Facebook what school you are rushing at and what chapters they have that you will need letters for! Make the post shareable so your friends can help you out by broadening your network a little bit. If that doesn't work out, try looking up alumni chapters for those sororities near you and get in contact with them about possibly writing your letter for you!
6. Keep an open mind about the chapters at your school.
You will probably hear this phrase a lot between the time you register for recruitment and the time you are having the bid envelope placed in your hands. It's such a true statement to keep in mind. Every chapter has negative rumors and reputations that have been said about them at some point or another. Throw that out of your mind ASAP. Every chapter is full of wonderful girls who are passionate about their sisterhood and philanthropy.
That house you never heard anything about might be the one where you get chills during their sisterhood or philanthropy rounds. If you keep an open mind and trust the process, the right house will be revealed to you and you will be surprised how around can show you how much you click with a certain sorority. It's also okay to know that you don't necessarily mesh with certain chapters, but make sure you are giving each sorority a fair chance at the same time.
7. Plan out your outfits for the week.
As the week goes on, the rounds usually get more and more formal in the type of attire that you will be wearing to certain rounds. Don't plan your outfits around to fit a certain "stereotype" of what you think a certain sorority would want you to be wearing. You want to be expressing yourself and show who you are to the chapters at your school.
If you love wearing Lilly Pulitzer dresses, go for it. If you don't? That's all good to. You want to be comfortable in what you are wearing in the sense that you are going to be confident in who you are. However, you do want to look presentable and want to give a good first impression. Don't go breaking the bank either, you can be cute without spending all your money!
8. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF DURING RECRUITMENT!!!
It is such a hot, hectic week full of events held by the sororities that often times that is all that you spend that day doing. Make sure in the little breaks between you are drinking plenty of water and eating food. The last thing you want happening is missing an event because you passed out. Take care of yourself so that you can put your best foot forward during recruitment and really wow all the chapters at your school by your awesome personality!
9. Think of questions to ask at each house.
The girl talking to you at the house will definitely be asking questions about you to get know you. But the conversation will come to a point where they will most likely ask if you have any questions. Take this as a good chance to learn information about the chapter at your school.
10. Write down notes after each round.
It'll be so hard to remember at voting at the end of the day what you liked and disliked about each house if you don't take some sort of notes. Whether this is on your phone or in the little handbook they give you, taking notes will be so so helpful. It doesn't have to be super in depth either.
Just stuff to jog your memory like what house you were at, who you talked to, and some key points about what the conversation was about. You can include any other thoughts you want as well. After a while, the rounds will start to mix together so this will help out a ton.
